Another Ridiculous Residential Estimating Question

[Ravenvalor]

I know you all are tired of these types of questions but your help would be appreciated. I do not do new residential construction but this person lives about a mile away and he seems like a nice guy to work for.

A new customer just called and has completely gutted (removed ceiling and wall sheetrock) a 75 year old, 1400 sq. ft., brick, two story home. For budgeting purposes only, approximately what would it cost to have it wired per the 2014 NEC. This would be a bare bones meet the code dollar amount with no extra frills with the exception of a light fixture in each room instead of a switched receptacle. The location is Eastern Guilford NC.. All appliances are electric with the exception of the central heating system. No saw service is required. The well is already wired also.

Thanks in advance.

 

[samadam]

I know you all are tired of these types of questions but your help would be appreciated. I do not do new residential construction but this person lives about a mile away and he seems like a nice guy to work for.

A new customer just called and has completely gutted (removed ceiling and wall sheetrock) a 75 year old, 1400 sq. ft., brick, two story home. For budgeting purposes only, approximately what would it cost to have it wired per the 2014 NEC. This would be a bare bones meet the code dollar amount with no extra frills with the exception of a light fixture in each room instead of a switched receptacle. The location is Eastern Guilford NC.. All appliances are electric with the exception of the central heating system. No saw service is required. The well is already wired also.

Thanks in advance.

Does he have a set of drawings? I would hesitate to give him a price without a set of approved drawings. What's a saw service?

 

[Ravenvalor]

Does he have a set of drawings? I would hesitate to give him a price without a set of approved drawings. What's a saw service?

He has hired an architect to make up some. Not sure if that includes the electrical though. I have found that a lot of people want me to design the electrical system for them included in the quote that I give them. Those days are over.
I thought that I would at least give him a rough figure for him to budget by.

A saw service is a temporary power pole for carpenters to plug their saw into.

 

[mwm1752]

don't give a price if you have no idea T & M -- bare bones can range from $4-$8 sq ft not including service -- but nobody is ever satisfied with bare bones -- if he can afford an architect he can afford you

 

[brantmacga]

Another Ridiculous Residential Estimating Question

You could maybe sketch up a floor plan to give yourself an idea of what devices and fixtures they'll need.... Do a per-device take-off and give them a budget proposal. Just list it out.... You get X number of receps, X number of switches, X number of fixtures.... Etc


This is basically what I give someone .... See pic.... This was with drawings

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ravenvalor]

don't give a price if you have no idea T & M -- bare bones can range from $4-$8 sq ft not including service -- but nobody is ever satisfied with bare bones -- if he can afford an architect he can afford you

Good point. He probably got someone else to give him a best guess over the phone and is probably using it to shop around.

 

[Ravenvalor]

You could maybe sketch up a floor plan to give yourself an idea of what devices and fixtures they'll need.... Do a per-device take-off and give them a budget proposal. Just list it out.... You get X number of receps, X number of switches, X number of fixtures.... Etc


This is basically what I give someone .... See pic.... This was with drawings

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That sounds easy enough.
I will email him for a basic sketch.
At least I will sound a little bit more intelligent than the person who gave him a sq.ft. quote.
Thanks....

 

[James L]

Is this a new customer or a new *potential* customer? Honestly, if you don't do residential new construction, you won't make any money with a competitive price.

They might as well be asking you for a price to put their roof on.

 

[mwm1752]

That sounds easy enough.
I will email him for a basic sketch.
At least I will sound a little bit more intelligent than the person who gave him a sq.ft. quote.
Thanks....

Seriously, that's the comment for giving sound advice -- hope GA prices are comparable to your area -- bidding is an art based on fine lines for profit brantmacga generousity to share is nice.

 

[nickelec]

Up here in nyc and the surrounding suburbs a two story single family house basic roughing/service/and finish work could run anywhere between 12k to 20k with homeowner buying all fixtures and dimmers if they want

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[mgookin]

I know you all are tired of these types of questions but your help would be appreciated. I do not do new residential construction but this person lives about a mile away and he seems like a nice guy to work for.

A new customer just called and has completely gutted (removed ceiling and wall sheetrock) a 75 year old, 1400 sq. ft., brick, two story home. For budgeting purposes only, approximately what would it cost to have it wired per the 2014 NEC. This would be a bare bones meet the code dollar amount with no extra frills with the exception of a light fixture in each room instead of a switched receptacle. The location is Eastern Guilford NC.. All appliances are electric with the exception of the central heating system. No saw service is required. The well is already wired also.

Thanks in advance.

That's a early 1940's house. If it's already gutted, go in there with a drill and try to drill a hole. I know if that building were here, you'd be burning up drill bits and drills too and the time to bore a hole will kill your estimate.

If it were new construction single story two good guys could rough that out in a day or two to meet minimum code and another day or two to trim it out with $?k in materials.
If that wood is petrified it could take 3-4 or more days to rough it and you may burn up $1k in tools doing it. Plus you'll be hating life and want to be paid more for the stress. The time to trim will be normal though.

Even driving a staple and mounting boxes in petrified wood are nasty tasks. It's like trying to use rubber nails. They just keep bending.

Is the building already gutted? Go over there with the owner and see how hard that wood is so he knows why the price is what it is.

 

[growler]

No saw service is required.

What's a saw service?

A saw service is a temporary power pole for carpenters to plug their saw into.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to say temp service ?

 

[growler]

Even driving a staple and mounting boxes in petrified wood are nasty tasks. It's like trying to use rubber nails. They just keep bending.

One way to deal with box mounting is to use the adjustable boxes that have a bracket that's mounted with screws. This eliminates the use of box extensions.

These boxes do cost more but you end up with a better looking job.

It's hard to be competitive so I think of jobs like this as custom homes if the owner is going to live there and don't try for the cheap price. May as well as least prewire for fans ( they always end up with fans).

I would tell the customer to at least think $10K ( no fixtures & smokes included ) and up and that's as close as it get without plans. Need to check to see what type of panel because some arc faults are more expensive than others. May end up doing a panel swap even if no new service because of lack of room.

To many unknowns to give a real quote.

 

[electrofelon]

Your materials will be about 2k, 20% markup makes it $2400, permit $400, so call it 3k. I would figure 3 weeks labor. How much do you want for your time? 3k per week? Personally, I would be content with that, ymmv

 

[kwired]

if there is no plans with specifics for electrical, you have to either shoot high or at least talk to the owner and find out what they will want. Many of them have no idea what electrical all involves and will initially try to tell you where they want receptacles, when in reality a couple more receptacles here and there don't break the budget, but lighting certainly can, or finding out you needed to account for electric heating can really mess with your estimate. They often haven't settled on what they will have for HVAC at this stage either and you must insist on that or else give them an estimate and make it clear it may need modifications if they don't have details for you on HVAC.

Also if you need to bring new service to the home you may need more on site details as well as know what POCO may require before you will know what the service portion will even cost you.

 

[JFletcher]

That's a early 1940's house. If it's already gutted, go in there with a drill and try to drill a hole. I know if that building were here, you'd be burning up drill bits and drills too and the time to bore a hole will kill your estimate.

If it were new construction single story two good guys could rough that out in a day or two to meet minimum code and another day or two to trim it out with $?k in materials.
If that wood is petrified it could take 3-4 or more days to rough it and you may burn up $1k in tools doing it. Plus you'll be hating life and want to be paid more for the stress. The time to trim will be normal though.

Even driving a staple and mounting boxes in petrified wood are nasty tasks. It's like trying to use rubber nails. They just keep bending.

Is the building already gutted? Go over there with the owner and see how hard that wood is so he knows why the price is what it is.

Our 62 year old home has that petrified wood. When we hung drywall years ago, we had to predrill every single hole to keep from bending nails/breaking screws. As for burning up a 1k in bits and drills, it aint that bad. Use castle self feed bits, they go thru anything and can be sharpened.

My $159 Rigid drill has almost 4 years of heavy commercial drilling and has tried to break my wrists on several occasions but still runs strong. One very good drill will outlast 10 cheaper ones easy.

 

[Ravenvalor]

Our 62 year old home has that petrified wood. When we hung drywall years ago, we had to predrill every single hole to keep from bending nails/breaking screws. As for burning up a 1k in bits and drills, it aint that bad. Use castle self feed bits, they go thru anything and can be sharpened.

My $159 Rigid drill has almost 4 years of heavy commercial drilling and has tried to break my wrists on several occasions but still runs strong. One very good drill will outlast 10 cheaper ones easy.

Thanks for all of the great input. This definitely gives me broad strokes to start with.

That petrified wood is truly a bear to work with. I have done a lot of residential remodeling in the past 30 years and have only run across it on a house built around 1804.